St. Tammany Art Association

St. Tammany Art Association is a nonprofit visual arts organization based in Covington, Louisiana, founded to promote fine arts, crafts, and cultural programming in St. Tammany Parish. It operates exhibition galleries, educational studios, and community outreach initiatives that intersect with regional history and national cultural networks, engaging artists, collectors, educators, and civic leaders.

History

The association emerged in the postwar era amid civic renewal influenced by figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon, Lester B. Pearson, and movements associated with the National Endowment for the Arts, Smithsonian Institution, American Federation of Arts, League of American Orchestras, and Congress for Cultural Freedom. Early benefactors included collectors and patrons linked to institutions like the New Orleans Museum of Art, Tulane University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana State University, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The organization developed partnerships with municipal and parish entities tied to St. Tammany Parish, Covington, Louisiana, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Metairie, and Slidell. Over decades the association intersected with national movements represented by names such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Helen Frankenthaler, Alexander Calder, and Louise Nevelson through traveling exhibitions, loans, and curator exchanges. The institution’s programming responded to regional events involving Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Civil Rights Movement, and economic shifts connected to Shell Oil Company, ExxonMobil, Entergy, and local chambers of commerce.

Collections and Exhibitions

The association’s galleries have hosted exhibitions featuring work by artists with connections to the Gulf South and national figures associated with collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, and National Gallery of Art. Exhibition themes have invoked painters and printmakers such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Yayoi Kusama, Ai Weiwei, Ansel Adams, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, and Jacob Lawrence. Collections and temporary shows emphasized ceramics, sculpture, photography, and fiber art linked to makers like Beatrice Wood, Bernard Leach, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Isamu Noguchi, Constantin Brâncuși, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, and Barbara Hepworth. Curatorial projects referenced regional traditions associated with Cajun people, Creole people, Acadian people, Choctaw, Houma, and historical sites such as French Quarter, Jackson Square, Bourbon Street, Lake Pontchartrain, and Bayou St. John. Touring exhibitions have collaborated with organizations like the American Craft Council, ArtTable, Pace Gallery, Gagosian Gallery, Sotheby's, Christie's, and regional museums.

Education and Community Programs

Programs include studio classes, workshops, artist residencies, youth initiatives, and public lectures coordinated with partners such as Louisiana Division of the Arts, Arts Council of New Orleans, Young Audiences Arts for Learning, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, Rotary International, and educational institutions including Covington High School, Salmen High School, Mandeville High School, St. Scholastica Academy (Covington), Northshore Technical Community College, and University of New Orleans. The association’s outreach intersects with arts advocacy groups like Americans for the Arts, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Local Arts Agencies, and community foundations such as The Kresge Foundation, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Surdna Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and regional funders. Workshops have featured visiting artists and educators influenced by practitioners like Lynda Benglis, Chuck Close, Brice Marden, Cindy Sherman, Judy Chicago, and Faith Ringgold, while youth programming referenced curricula used by National Art Education Association and collaborations with academic art departments at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Facilities and Architecture

Housed in historic structures within Covington’s downtown near landmarks such as Columbia Street Wharf, Bogue Falaya River, Pontchartrain Hotel, Touro Infirmary, and the Covington Trailhead, the association’s buildings reflect architectural periods tied to practitioners like James H. Dakin, Henry Howard (architect), Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Thomas Sully, and styles seen in French Colonial architecture, Greek Revival architecture, and Victorian architecture. Restoration and preservation efforts have engaged preservation agencies such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Louisiana Landmarks Society, Historic New Orleans Collection, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, and local historic districts. Facilities include climate-controlled galleries, classroom studios, printmaking presses, ceramic kilns, and sculpture fabrication spaces that comply with standards used by museums like the Smithsonian American Art Museum and conservation protocols of the American Institute for Conservation.

Governance and Funding

Governance follows nonprofit models with a board of directors, executive leadership, and volunteers working alongside partners such as United Way, Chamber of Commerce of St. Tammany Parish, City of Covington, and regional arts commissions. Funding streams combine individual donations, memberships, corporate sponsorships from firms like Chevron Corporation, BP, Entergy Corporation, and grants from foundations such as National Endowment for the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and state arts agencies. Fiscal oversight and nonprofit compliance reference reporting practices of the Internal Revenue Service, Louisiana Secretary of State, and nonprofit accrediting bodies; governance models draw on precedents from museums and cultural organizations including Smithsonian Institution, American Alliance of Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and New York Public Library.

Category:Art museums and galleries in Louisiana